North America

The New York Yankees Major League Baseball franchise has entered the esports sector through an investment partnership with Vision Esports, the parent company of the Echo Fox, Twin Galaxies and Vision Entertainment properties.

Golf’s PGA Tour has announced that its Barbasol Championship will move from Opelika, Alabama to Nicholasville, Kentucky from next year.

The NFL American football league has extended its long-running partnership with ticket sales and distribution company Ticketmaster, with the new deal set to result in the formation of the first open-architecture, fully digital ticketing system in professional sport.

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has approved the relocation of the San Antonio Stars to Las Vegas, with the franchise to begin playing in Nevada from the 2018 season.

Salt Lake City in Utah, United States, has established a committee to investigate a possible bid for the 2026 or 2030 winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, while the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has spoken of its “disappointment” that Innsbruck will not enter the race to host the 2026 Games.

Online sports apparel and merchandise retailer Fanatics has launched a new division that will focus on the US college sports market.

The owners of Columbus Crew have today (Tuesday) confirmed they are exploring the option of moving the Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise to Austin, stating that its current business model is unsustainable.

A consortium has lodged a bid to form a New York-based rugby league team that would begin competing in the third tier of the English game.

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has confirmed that it is interested in bidding for the winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, but has admitted that it would prefer to stage the 2030 event so as not to interfere with Los Angeles’ hosting of the 2028 summer Games.

E-commerce giant Rakuten is making waves in the world of sport having recently signed off on sponsorship deals with the NBA, Barcelona FC and the Golden State Warriors. Ben Cronin spoke to the company’s global marketing director, Rahul Kadavakolu, at the recent Leaders business conference.

The US city of Portland will return to the IndyCar schedule in 2018 after an 11-year absence, the North American motor-racing series has announced.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) has awarded hosting rights for next year’s Women’s Baseball World Cup to the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA).

The US division of Sportradar, the sports data and digital content provider, has completed a deal to acquire data-tracking technology company Mocap Analytics.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has appointed former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to lead a commission designed to investigate reform of the college sports system in the wake of the inducements scandal that emerged last month.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that only one athlete was found to have used banned substances following re-analysis of samples taken during the 2010 winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

The man behind Toronto Wolfpack, the world’s first transatlantic rugby league club, has said he is in talks to launch two more teams in North America, with Boston and Hamilton reported to be in contention for the new franchises.